Community Trolls
Encyclopedia
Community Trolls was the group name of a short-lived musical collaboration between Michael Stipe
of R.E.M.
and Matthew Sweet
. In 1983, before either of them were very famous, they collaborated as part of the Athens, Georgia music scene
, writing and recording three songs together. One of the compositions, "Tainted Obligation", was nearly released on a compilation album in 1986, and later appeared on bootlegs; it was released officially on a Matthew Sweet CD in 2002. Another Community Trolls' song, "Six Stock Answers", appeared in an unreleased indie film featuring Stipe, Sweet and some of their friends.
Community Trolls, who may have at times included additional band members, performed in public at least twice. By sometime in 1984, however, Sweet began distancing himself from the Athens music scene, and in 1985 he got a record deal and moved to New York. While some people accused him of using his Athens music connections to get ahead and then desert the scene, R.E.M. did not hold any hard feelings towards him.
, Sweet was a big fan of Mitch Easter
. Easter produced R.E.M.'s first single, the Hib-Tone
version of "Radio Free Europe
". Sweet loved its B-side
, "Sitting Still", and became a fan of the band. When R.E.M. performed in Lincoln in September 1982, Sweet went to the show. At that point R.E.M. were still relatively unknown, so there was almost nobody at the concert. Sweet met the band and gave Michael Stipe
a tape of songs he had been working on. R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia
, which was becoming famous for its vibrant music scene. Sweet had read about Athens in New York Rocker
magazine, and learned more about it from talking to R.E.M.
R.E.M. put Sweet in touch with Easter, who wrote Sweet a number of long letters, and suggested he move to Athens after graduating from high school. Meanwhile, Michael Stipe really liked Sweet's tape, and he also played it for his sister Lynda Stipe and friend Linda Hopper
, who were both in the band Oh-OK
. All three sent Sweet postcards saying he should come perform in Athens, with Lynda Stipe and Hopper inviting him to open
for Oh-OK there. Sweet told his parents that he wanted to study at the University of Georgia, in Athens. Within weeks of moving there, he had become a member of Oh-OK, who recorded their E.P. Furthermore What in August 1983 with him onboard. While a member of Oh-OK, Sweet also began collaborating with Michael Stipe, and they named their duo Community Trolls.
that fall, but only one of the tracks from the session,"Tainted Obligation", has been officially released. Stipe plays accordion on the song, and Sweet acoustic guitar, with vocals by both of them.
In 1986, "Tainted Obligation" was slated for, but not ultimately released on, the Zippo/Demon Records
compilation album Don't Shoot. It was put on a UK cassette advance version of the compilation, but was removed before the album was officially released. In the early 1990s, the song surfaced as "Tainted Obligations" on R.E.M. bootlegs
such as Stab It and Steer It and Chestnut. The track was released officially on the 2002 Matthew Sweet compilation To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet
. In a review of the album, Rolling Stone
critic Gavin Edwards describes the song as "enchanting" and as having "harmonies as pretty as you can imagine".
film called Just Like a Movie. It was shot in September 1983 in Athens by New York Rocker photographer Laura Levine, a friend of the members of R.E.M. Those with acting roles included Levine, Michael Stipe, Sweet, Hopper, Lynda Stipe, and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry
. One scene in the film, a parody of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues
" sequence in D. A. Pennebaker
's Bob Dylan
documentary Dont Look Back
, shows Michael Stipe wearing a skirt and tights flipping placards with the song's lyrics, "Six stock answers to 74,000 questions" repeated ad nauseam. Just Like a Movies plot has two rival bands performing on the same night, leading up to the climax question of "Which band is everybody going to go see?"
in Athens. On September 30, 1983, Community Trolls played a set between two R.E.M. sets at the Stitchcraft in Athens, performing four songs: "Six Stock Answers", "My Roof to Your Roof", "Tainted Obligation" and the Velvet Underground
's "Pale Blue Eyes
". R.E.M. biographer Marcus Gray believes it is likely that footage of the Stitchcraft show, including the Community Trolls' set, was used in Just Like a Movie. Part of R.E.M.'s performance, and the Community Trolls' four songs, have been released on the R.E.M. bootleg 20th Century Boys Volume 1. Sweet performed with members of R.E.M. at least one other time while he was in Athens: When R.E.M. shared a bill with Oh-OK on October 3, 1983, at the University of Georgia's Legion Field, Sweet joined R.E.M. onstage and played guitar.
; the group consisted of Sweet and former Oh-OK drummer David Pierce. In October 1983, they recorded a six-song EP, Soundcastles, and performed in New York, Florida and Georgia State to promote it. In November 1984, the Buzz of Delight began recording more songs, which remained unreleased until three of them came out years later on To Understand. Meanwhile, Stipe continued his work with R.E.M., who were getting a lot of acclaim and success with their album Murmur
. In 1983, it was named album of the year by Rolling Stone and Trouser Press
, and by the middle of 1984, it had sold 200,000 copies. In November 1983, R.E.M. began recording their follow-up album, Reckoning
.
Sweet began distancing himself from other people in the Athens music scene and in 1984 quit Oh-OK; by 1985, the Buzz of Delight had broken up. That year, Sweet got a record deal with CBS Records
and moved to New York City. Sweet was accused of selling out and using his Athens connections to get a record deal and leave. Sweet maintains that when he went to CBS, he never claimed to have anything to do with Athens, so that nobody could say he used the town. He says that after months of living in Athens, he realized things weren't as happy there as everyone pretended, and that there was backstabbing going on. In 1993, he said, "Things really turned dark there when R.E.M. got famous, because everyone wanted that fame so bad. Maybe I wanted it too, but I had this musical goal all of my own and wasn't going to go along with the way it was done there." Everybody was telling him that he should be touring and building up a following before doing his record, like R.E.M. had done. However, more than making the record itself and becoming a rock star, Sweet's main motivation was to get money to buy studio gear.
R.E.M., for their part, held no hard feelings towards Sweet. Peter Buck
has said, "The guy wanted to make records. I don't see anything wrong with that." Years later, Sweet recorded with R.E.M.'s Mike Mills
on the song "The Ballad of El Goodo", on the Big Star
tribute Big Star, Small World
. It was originally scheduled to come out in 1998, but its release was delayed until 2006. On March 26, 2011, Sweet and Mills performed the Big Star song "September Gurls" together live at a tribute to Big Star singer Alex Chilton
; Stipe also performed at this concert, singing "The Letter", by Chilton's 1960s group, the Box Tops
.
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
of R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
and Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...
. In 1983, before either of them were very famous, they collaborated as part of the Athens, Georgia music scene
Music of Athens, Georgia
The music of Athens, Georgia, includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and New Wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M. and The B-52s, and several long-time indie rock groups...
, writing and recording three songs together. One of the compositions, "Tainted Obligation", was nearly released on a compilation album in 1986, and later appeared on bootlegs; it was released officially on a Matthew Sweet CD in 2002. Another Community Trolls' song, "Six Stock Answers", appeared in an unreleased indie film featuring Stipe, Sweet and some of their friends.
Community Trolls, who may have at times included additional band members, performed in public at least twice. By sometime in 1984, however, Sweet began distancing himself from the Athens music scene, and in 1985 he got a record deal and moved to New York. While some people accused him of using his Athens music connections to get ahead and then desert the scene, R.E.M. did not hold any hard feelings towards him.
Background
As a teenager in Lincoln, NebraskaLincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
, Sweet was a big fan of Mitch Easter
Mitch Easter
Mitch Easter is a songwriter, musician, and producer. As a producer, he is probably best known for his work with R.E.M. from 1981 through 1984, though he has also worked with many other acts including The Hang Ups, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Game Theory, Marshall Crenshaw, Velvet Crush, and...
. Easter produced R.E.M.'s first single, the Hib-Tone
Hib-Tone
Hib-Tone is an American recording label, based in Atlanta, Georgia, founded by Jonny Hibbert, a law student at Woodrow Wilson College of Law, in 1981. The label has released eight records, including two full-length albums by the bands Design and RF and the Radar Angels...
version of "Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe (song)
"Radio Free Europe" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M. "Radio Free Europe" was released as R.E.M.'s debut single on the short-lived independent record label Hib-Tone in 1981...
". Sweet loved its B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
, "Sitting Still", and became a fan of the band. When R.E.M. performed in Lincoln in September 1982, Sweet went to the show. At that point R.E.M. were still relatively unknown, so there was almost nobody at the concert. Sweet met the band and gave Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...
a tape of songs he had been working on. R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, which was becoming famous for its vibrant music scene. Sweet had read about Athens in New York Rocker
New York Rocker
New York Rocker was a punk rock new wave magazine founded by Alan Betrock in 1976. Betrock left the magazine in 1978, and Andy Schwartz took over as editor until 1982. In 1979, it had a circulation of 20,000....
magazine, and learned more about it from talking to R.E.M.
R.E.M. put Sweet in touch with Easter, who wrote Sweet a number of long letters, and suggested he move to Athens after graduating from high school. Meanwhile, Michael Stipe really liked Sweet's tape, and he also played it for his sister Lynda Stipe and friend Linda Hopper
Linda Hopper
Linda Elizabeth Hopper is the vocalist for the Atlanta, Georgia-based rock group Magnapop. Her pop punk/power pop vocal style helped to define the band's sound and she has co-written their minor hit singles "Slowly, Slowly" and "Open the Door"...
, who were both in the band Oh-OK
Oh-OK
Oh-OK was an American musical group from Athens, Georgia formed in 1981 with singer/lyricist Linda Hopper, bassist/vocalist/lyricist Lynda Stipe, and drummer David Pierce. Other members later included drummer David McNair and guitarist Matthew Sweet. The trio began practicing together at parties in...
. All three sent Sweet postcards saying he should come perform in Athens, with Lynda Stipe and Hopper inviting him to open
Opening act
An opening act or warm-up act is an entertainer or entertainment act that performs at a concert before the featured entertainer...
for Oh-OK there. Sweet told his parents that he wanted to study at the University of Georgia, in Athens. Within weeks of moving there, he had become a member of Oh-OK, who recorded their E.P. Furthermore What in August 1983 with him onboard. While a member of Oh-OK, Sweet also began collaborating with Michael Stipe, and they named their duo Community Trolls.
Songs
Sometime in the autumn of 1983, Stipe and Sweet wrote at least three songs together. Of their songwriting process, Sweet has said: "[Stipe] was the real powerhouse behind it. I was pretty tentative in those days. We just sat around, Michael went through the little book he wrote lyrics in, with me just kind of strumming along behind.""Tainted Obligation"
They recorded their three compositions with producer John KeaneJohn Keane (record producer)
John Keane is an American record producer based in Athens, Georgia, who has worked extensively with R.E.M., Indigo Girls and Widespread Panic. He owns and operates John Keane Studios in Athens, which opened in 1981....
that fall, but only one of the tracks from the session,"Tainted Obligation", has been officially released. Stipe plays accordion on the song, and Sweet acoustic guitar, with vocals by both of them.
In 1986, "Tainted Obligation" was slated for, but not ultimately released on, the Zippo/Demon Records
Demon Music Group
Demon Records is a United Kingdom record label founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera who had previously started Stiff Records...
compilation album Don't Shoot. It was put on a UK cassette advance version of the compilation, but was removed before the album was officially released. In the early 1990s, the song surfaced as "Tainted Obligations" on R.E.M. bootlegs
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
such as Stab It and Steer It and Chestnut. The track was released officially on the 2002 Matthew Sweet compilation To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet
To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet
To Understand: The Early Recordings of Matthew Sweet is a compilation album by Alternative rock musician Matthew Sweet. Released by Hip-O Records in 2002, it is a compilation of early Sweet recordings.-Track listing:# Southern...
. In a review of the album, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
critic Gavin Edwards describes the song as "enchanting" and as having "harmonies as pretty as you can imagine".
"Six Stock Answers" and "My Roof to Your Roof"
Two other documented Community Trolls' songs are entitled "Six Stock Answers" and "My Roof to Your Roof". "Six Stock Answers", whose vocals are by Stipe, was used in an unreleased low-budget forty-five-minute Super-8Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
film called Just Like a Movie. It was shot in September 1983 in Athens by New York Rocker photographer Laura Levine, a friend of the members of R.E.M. Those with acting roles included Levine, Michael Stipe, Sweet, Hopper, Lynda Stipe, and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry
Bill Berry
William "Bill" Thomas Berry is a retired American musician, multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. In addition to his drumming duties, Berry played many other instruments including guitar, bass guitar, and piano, both for songwriting and on R.E.M....
. One scene in the film, a parody of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues
Subterranean Homesick Blues
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally released in 1965 as a single on Columbia Records, catalogue 43242. It appeared 19 days later as the lead track to the album Bringing It All Back Home. It was Dylan's first Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also...
" sequence in D. A. Pennebaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan Pennebaker is an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema/Cinéma vérité. Performing arts and politics are his primary subjects.-Biography:...
's Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
documentary Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back
Dont Look Back is a 1967 documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker that covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour in the United Kingdom.In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically...
, shows Michael Stipe wearing a skirt and tights flipping placards with the song's lyrics, "Six stock answers to 74,000 questions" repeated ad nauseam. Just Like a Movies plot has two rival bands performing on the same night, leading up to the climax question of "Which band is everybody going to go see?"
Live performances
Community Trolls' first public performance was busking outside the 40 Watt Club40 Watt Club
The 40 Watt Club is a music venue in Athens, Georgia. Along with CBGB's, the Whisky a Go Go, and selected others, it was instrumental in launching American punk rock and "New Wave music."...
in Athens. On September 30, 1983, Community Trolls played a set between two R.E.M. sets at the Stitchcraft in Athens, performing four songs: "Six Stock Answers", "My Roof to Your Roof", "Tainted Obligation" and the Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
's "Pale Blue Eyes
Pale Blue Eyes
"Pale Blue Eyes" is a song written by Lou Reed and performed by The Velvet Underground. It was included on the band's eponymous 1969 album The Velvet Underground....
". R.E.M. biographer Marcus Gray believes it is likely that footage of the Stitchcraft show, including the Community Trolls' set, was used in Just Like a Movie. Part of R.E.M.'s performance, and the Community Trolls' four songs, have been released on the R.E.M. bootleg 20th Century Boys Volume 1. Sweet performed with members of R.E.M. at least one other time while he was in Athens: When R.E.M. shared a bill with Oh-OK on October 3, 1983, at the University of Georgia's Legion Field, Sweet joined R.E.M. onstage and played guitar.
Possible other band members
Although only Stipe and Sweet performed in the studio on "Tainted Obligation", it is not clear whether other musicians may have sometimes been included in the band. Gray writes that "the line-up of the Community Trolls remains elusive, but Sweet was guitarist and singer". In the book Rolling Stone's Alt-Rock-A-Rama, their line-up is described as an "Athens-based, looseknit ensemble, which included Matthew Sweet, [and which] featured Michael Stipe's vocals on a handful of tracks".Post-Community Trolls
Around the same time as he was collaborating with Stipe, and while still a member of Oh-OK, Sweet began writing songs for another project, the Buzz of DelightThe Buzz of Delight
The Buzz of Delight was a band consisting of Matthew Sweet and David Pierce, which was active from 1983–1985.-Background:Matthew Sweet grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was musical from an early age, and as a teenager made 4-track cassettes of songs he wrote. Sweet was an early fan of R.E.M., as...
; the group consisted of Sweet and former Oh-OK drummer David Pierce. In October 1983, they recorded a six-song EP, Soundcastles, and performed in New York, Florida and Georgia State to promote it. In November 1984, the Buzz of Delight began recording more songs, which remained unreleased until three of them came out years later on To Understand. Meanwhile, Stipe continued his work with R.E.M., who were getting a lot of acclaim and success with their album Murmur
Murmur (album)
Murmur is the debut album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1983 on I.R.S. Records. Murmur drew critical acclaim upon its release for its sound, defined by singer Michael Stipe's cryptic lyrics, guitarist Peter Buck's jangly guitar style, and bassist Mike Mills' melodic...
. In 1983, it was named album of the year by Rolling Stone and Trouser Press
Trouser Press
Trouser Press was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow Who fan Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" ...
, and by the middle of 1984, it had sold 200,000 copies. In November 1983, R.E.M. began recording their follow-up album, Reckoning
Reckoning (R.E.M. album)
Reckoning is the second album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in 1984 by I.R.S. Records. Produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, the album was recorded at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina over 16 days in December 1983 and January 1984...
.
Sweet began distancing himself from other people in the Athens music scene and in 1984 quit Oh-OK; by 1985, the Buzz of Delight had broken up. That year, Sweet got a record deal with CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
and moved to New York City. Sweet was accused of selling out and using his Athens connections to get a record deal and leave. Sweet maintains that when he went to CBS, he never claimed to have anything to do with Athens, so that nobody could say he used the town. He says that after months of living in Athens, he realized things weren't as happy there as everyone pretended, and that there was backstabbing going on. In 1993, he said, "Things really turned dark there when R.E.M. got famous, because everyone wanted that fame so bad. Maybe I wanted it too, but I had this musical goal all of my own and wasn't going to go along with the way it was done there." Everybody was telling him that he should be touring and building up a following before doing his record, like R.E.M. had done. However, more than making the record itself and becoming a rock star, Sweet's main motivation was to get money to buy studio gear.
R.E.M., for their part, held no hard feelings towards Sweet. Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
has said, "The guy wanted to make records. I don't see anything wrong with that." Years later, Sweet recorded with R.E.M.'s Mike Mills
Mike Mills
Michael Edward "Mike" Mills is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock group R.E.M.. Though known primarily as a bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and pianist, his musical repertoire includes also keyboards, guitar, and percussion instruments...
on the song "The Ballad of El Goodo", on the Big Star
Big Star
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later...
tribute Big Star, Small World
Big Star, Small World
Big Star Small World is a 2006 tribute album to the American power pop band, Big Star.It was originally due for release in 1998 on Ignition Records. However, after the company went under, the project was shelved. It was eventually released in 2006 on Koch Records.It features tracks by a range of...
. It was originally scheduled to come out in 1998, but its release was delayed until 2006. On March 26, 2011, Sweet and Mills performed the Big Star song "September Gurls" together live at a tribute to Big Star singer Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton
William Alexander "Alex" Chilton was an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star...
; Stipe also performed at this concert, singing "The Letter", by Chilton's 1960s group, the Box Tops
The Box Tops
The Box Tops were a Memphis rock group of the second half of the 1960s. They are best known for the hits "The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Soul Deep," "I Met Her in Church," and "Cry Like A Baby," and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period...
.